The shank, which works as a reinforcement of the arch, can be made of either metal, wood or as in this case, leather. A piece of sole leather is cut to fit the open space. The edges are skived to match the thickness of the upper leather edges. The shank is glued in place. The front foot is filled with cork, which is glued on and skived to fit.

Now it is time for the counters as mentioned in my last post. For the heel counter and toe puff I chose leather at approximately 2 millimeters thickness, and thinner for the side counters. All parts are sanded down and skived to nothing at the edges.

The side counters are mounted using shoemakers paste. It is smoothed down with the hammer to avoid an obvious transition. Then the same procedure is done for the heel counter and toe cap, at the same time lasting and nailing it to the insole.

Finally time has come for the part of this project I have been looking forward to the most, at the same time wondering if I would be up for the challenge of lasting. It is a slow process requiring much patience. Moisting the leather with at sponge makes it more elastic. Outer leather and lining are tightened over the last with a pincer. It is secured with nails, beginning at the toe. With the shoemakers hammer, the leather fibres are compressed, creating a smooth feather line.

After long time researching, browsing everything from YouTube to antique household books, I put together my own recipe for shoemakers paste. In all simplicity it consists of water, flour, sugar, salt and vinegar. The paste is primarily used for the stiffeners which I will go further into in my next post. But before they can be mounted, all nails are removed and the lining is lasted and glued to the bottom using the paste.

The brogue holes are punched out. The underlaying piece of seams are skived. This means that the leather is cut to nothing at the edges to avoid a visible overlap. A disciplin that demands a great deal of practice and patience, but very important for the final detail.

The thoroughly moisted soles are now ready to be nailed to the bottom of the last. This video shows how they are then shaped as the curves of the last with a shoemakers hammer. This compresses the leather fibres.

Yet another two weeks had to go by since my last blog post, but finally my shoe lasts are here. It took over six weeks for them to arrive, and several times I have considered withdrawing my payment, but in the end I let the factory get the benefit of the doubt. It’s not like I could just go to the local “Shoemakers ‘R’ Us” to buy a pair, so I kind of had to hope for them to arrive in the end.

I was very excited to see them as it is quite difficult to determine the shape from a photo. The toe is a bit more pointy than I imagined, but it actually suits me very well. The shape is very beautiful, and suitable for many different types of shoes.

While waiting, I have been doing even more research on the process of shoemaking. My preparations let me to a quick start on the first steps of designing and constructing my first pair of shoes.

Firstly, the last is covered with masking tape. My guess is, there are as many ways of going about it, as there are shoemakers. I put together my own version which felt right for me. The bottom line is, it needs to be as smooth and even as possible. I ended up having around four layers, but I believe two or three would be just as fine.

Then for the really fun part – drawing the lines and proportions of the shoe. It’s like breaking in a blank, threedimensional canvas. After playing around with a few different models and ideas, I came up with a classic laces shoe with simplified Oxford details along the sides. In my next post I will be showing You how to transfer this to a flat pattern.

I have previously challenged myself in the art of handsewing shoes. I started out with a certain sceptisism, since I have always thought that I would be able to make any kind of apparel, but shoes. None the less, I managed to sew a pair of leather shoes from scratch, and they have been used often since then.

However, a creative geek like myself always sets new and higher goals. My first pair of shoes were soft like moccasins and made to take shape from my feet when worn. My new goal is to make shoes in the traditional way, shaping the shoes over a last (a model of a foot) and stiffening the heel and toe to keep the shape. After searching for a long time, I finally found a shoe last factory in Italy that could make one pair to order. It is of course completely unbearable for me to wait for them to arrive, why I make many, more or less useful preparations for my soon to be titel as hobby-shoemaker. Naturally it has been necessary for me to purchase new tools. As we say in Denmark, you should never go down on equipment, especially not when it holds such an aesthetic value as in this case. Crazy to be so thrilled about a shoemakers hammer! And in my unbearable impatience I have even made a leather handle for my new shoemakers knife. I hope my lasts will arrive next week for me to begin my first real shoemaking project. And I hope You would like to follow the process whichever direction it may follow. To be continued…